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The people of Lower Manya Krobo Municipality are feverishly preparing to go to the polls to elect their local representatives after a three-year protracted litigation which restrained the Electoral Commission (EC) from holding elections in the disputed area. All is set for the much awaited polls on Tuesday December 3, 2013. Two separate elections would take place on that day; one is to elect unit committee members and the other to elect assembly members for the municipal assembly. Elections would begin from 7:00am till 5:00pm when voting would be closed. In 2010, the introduction of LI 1983 gave autonomy to Dangbe West District (in the Greater Accra Region) over six electoral areas in Lower Manya Krobo in the Eastern Region; a situation which the chiefs and people of Lower Manya Krobo recognised as a mistake and therefore took the matter to court for redress. The disputed electoral areas were Zongo, Akutue, Salon, Osorkutu, Amedeka and Bungalow all in Akuse in the Eastern Region. The court, however, gave the people opportunity to take part in the biometric registration which allowed them to vote in the 2012 general elections. The Supreme Court finally ruled in favour of Lower Manya Krobo over a year ago stating that the six disputed electoral areas were in the Eastern Region, thereby removing every hurdle in the path of the EC to conduct elections in the area. On Tuesday when Daily Guide got to the offices of the EC in the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality, a number of aspiring assemblymen were seen interacting with the EC officials over the impending elections. Two of them, Alex Agyeman Amanor and Winfred Alex Konotey who spoke to Daily Guide expressed their excitement over the elections. The two are contesting in Kodjonya and Agomanya electoral areas respectively. They observed that the absence of assembly and unit committee members had denied the people certain social amenities. �We are excited and most of our people are also happy because it has been a long awaited desire. Since 2010 we have not had full representation at the District Assembly,� they noted. The Municipal Electoral officer, Asare Baffour Gyan said the two elections were of equal importance. In all, 230 persons are contesting in the unit committee elections out of which 26 are women. However, elections would be held in only 23 electoral areas out of the 31. This is because contestants in the remaining eight electoral areas were unopposed and so, qualified automatically. A number of 114 candidates are contesting the 31 assembly membership seats with a minimum of two and a maximum of six persons contesting in an electoral area out of which only three are females. The elections would take place throughout 112 polling centres in Akuse. So far, four contestants have been disqualified by the EC because they are not voters in the areas they are contesting. On the whole, only 29 females are contesting out of 344 contestants. The former DCE, Isaac Tetteh Agbo, had been acting as the MCE of the area. He told Daily Guide that the concern of the people of Lower Manya Krobo �is why it took the EC so long, about a year and more to hold elections here.�